21.04.2013

This year\'s budget performance is not threatened and the preliminary data for Q1 show that revenues are collected with some negligible deviation from the planned ones. This is what Minister of Finance Kalin Hristov said in an interview for BTA. He added that tax collection in the first three months of 2013 stood at 20.1% of the planned for the year, while last year it was 20.7%, and it should be taken into account that the budget revenue expected to be collected this year were 10% higher than last year. Minister Hristov added that the fiscal reserve was currently around BGN 5.3 billion and even after the payment of the 6-year bond placed on the domestic market to finance farmer subsidies, the reserve would be above the minimum statutory level at the at the end of the year.

According to Mr. Kalin Hristov, the only thing that accelerates the economic growth is the conducting of structural reforms, not the spending of fiscal funds. \"Structural reforms result in growth, while spending leads to a temporary boom of economy until the moment markets stop deficit financing; the economy then shrinks dramatically, as we have seen in Greece, Spain and Cyprus\", said the Minister of Finance.